Multiplayer

The Tribes-like first person shooter Section 8 is due to be released in late August but if you want a taste of the game you can head over to Fileplanet and download the multiplayer beta for the game. The beta is now available to all US and Canadian players with a free Fileplanet account.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with Section 8, it's a sci-fi first person shooter where your character is enclosed in a one-man battlesuit to take on the enemy in various planetary locations. It's being developed by Timegate Studios (who previously created two expansion packs for the original F.E.A.R. Originally to be released by the now defunct Gamecock Media, its now found a home in Southpeak Games.

One of the big complaints about Left 4 Dead 2 from fans is that the upcoming sequel to the zombie shooter will basically kill support for the original Left 4 Dead. At the time of the sequel's unveiling at E3 last month, developer Valve made it clear that they still planned to support and add content to the original game.

While we still don't know what that content will be like, Computer and Video Games has a quote from Valve's Doug Lombardi who states, "There will be some announcements coming before summer's out about what's coming there . . ". Let's hope so; we don't need another online petition, do we?

Gallery: Left 4 Dead

Electronic Arts has released a new gameplay trailer showing the Guadalcanal level of Battlefield 1943, the upcoming downloadable multiplayer shooter from developer Digital Illusions. The PC version of the game is due to be released in September following the console versions which will be available to download next week

Download the Battlefield 1943 Guadalcanal trailer (121 MB) at Big Download

It's time for our now daily StarCraft II news post. Today we offer up something that we know will be of interest to the hardcore fans of Blizzard's upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel. Yes indeed . . .you guessed correctly. We have some visuals showing off the technology trees for all three of the game's factions (Terran, Zerg and Protoss).

Of course, these images (as supplied by the Giant Bomb web site) cannot be considered final since we haven't even entered the real beta test for the game. As such, these tech tree configurations could (and most likely will) change before the final game comes out (please, oh pretty please let it come out this year, Blizzard). Still if you want to know what you have to do to get to the Terran Battlecruiser, you now know what Blizzard is thinking at the moment.

Remember how there was a minor issue with StarCraft fans over the fact that two of the original game's voice actors would not be returning to voice those same roles for StarCraft II?

Well those folks can rest easy now as one of those voice actors, Robert Clotworthy, has confirmed with Starcraftwire.net that he will indeed return to handle the voice acting duties of Jim Raynor for Blizzard's long awaited RTS sequel. Clotworthy states, "I'm looking forward to the release of the game and I hope that StarCraft players will enjoy going into battle with Jim and following his adventures throughout the galaxy." Now those fans can go back and continue to protest the lack of Glynnis Talken's acting in the role of Sarah Kerrigan . . .oh, and that whole lack of LAN support in the game.

We've already reported that Relic and THQ are planning to release a major content update for their sci-fi RTS game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II later this month. Today they plan to release an open beta version of the update which can be accessed via the Steam service.

The open beta for the 1.4 update, titled There Is Only War, will be made available at 2 pm PT (5 pm ET) and will include eight new multiplayer maps, the World Builder map editor, the new Observer feature and lots of other new features, balances changes and bug fixes. The patch will remain in beta until Monday, July 13. You can check out the entire patch notes at the Dawn of War II community site.

We do love a good same-screen multiplayer game, and Flock U, from TOJam #4, is definitely one of these. A simple game, Flock U has you competing against other players for the control of little flu viruses to attack each other. These flu viruses flock around you, hence the name of the game. While there's not much more to it than running around, collecting power-ups, and shooting your buddies, it's definitely a fun-filled, fast-paced arcade-style game that anybody can pick up and play.

You control your little guy through an Xbox 360 controller. You must have one, as it does not work otherwise. You then move around, collect the little purple flu people, and shoot them at the other players. The viruses also act as a shield against the fire from other players. Simple! This is perhaps the most rigorous install in the whole TOJam #4 competition, as it requires DirectX 9.0c+, Microsoft .net Framework 3.5, and the XNA Game Studio 3.0 Redistributable. You can find all of these, as well as the game itself, on the TOJam competition website.

We always thought the name "Merchants of Brooklyn" was an odd title for a sci-fi first person action game. Apparently so does the game's developer Paleo Entertainment. After releasing their CryEngine powered action game with that title last March as a single player game, the company quietly renanamed the game today on the Steam service with the much more generic title Drug Wars.

Drug Wars was previously the name given to Merchants of Brooklyn's recently added multiplayer mode but now that title covers both the single and multiplayer portions of the game. Today's name change also comes with a new patch for the game (automatically handled via Steam) that adds a few new features and fixes some bugs.

Last May, game publisher GameHi launched their first closed beta test for the US version of Sudden Attack, the free-to-play FPS that previously launched in Korea. Today GameHi announced that they are launching a second closed beta test for the game that will last until July 12.

While they are calling this a "closed" beta test, GameHi states that anyone who signs up for this second beta will gain access to the Sudden Attack game, which basically makes this an open beta. People who participated in the first closed beta will not need to re-register for the second beta but will gain access to new player characters. Sudden Attack is expected to officially launch in the US later this summer.

Like everyone else we were shocked and sad to hear about the premature death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50 last week. The news of his death was apparently enough to bring down parts of the Internet as tons of users hit news web sites reporting on his demise.

Since then the media has been paying tributes to Jackson's life with retrospectives, specials and the like. Those tributes are now extending to games. The just launched Battlefield Heroes free-to-play shooter from Digital Illusions and Electronic Arts is offering folks a chance to purchase some new in-game outfits for their characters. As you can see on the the right, those suits look an awful lot like Jackson's costumes in his 1980's music videos. The suits are just available for the month of July.

This fall Aspyr Media is bringing a new first person shooter franchise over to the PC platform. Dreamkiller is the newly revealed game from developer Mindware Studios who previously created the 2007 FPS title Painkiller Overdose (and yes, Painkiller and Dreamkiller do sound kind of similar) This new game is promising to be "fast, frantic and mega-bloodbath first-person shooter", at least according to the official press release.

The game itself takes place in the minds of the patients of psychologist Alice Drake. She doesn't just sit on a couch listening to odd stories. She also enters her patent's dreams and battles their mental demon. The first screenshots from the game show that battling dream demons requires some heavy ordinance. In addition to single player, Dreamkiller is promising some multiplayer modes as well as supernatural powers.

[Via email press release]

Folks who like to go to LAN parties or just play games on their corporate or college network may be dissapointed by this bit of news. According to an IncGames story, they have supposedly confirmed with Blizzard that there are no plans to support offline LAN multiplayer in their upcoming sci-fi RTS game StarCraft II.

Details on why such a simple feature would be excluded are scarce, however, with the article quoting a Blizzard spokesperson as saying the reason "is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net." More info on this unnamed technology is supposedly coming later but it's a shame that StarCraft II gamers will have to use Battle.net for multiplayer even if the people in the match are sitting right next to each other.

Update: Big Download got an update from Blizzard's PR folks which gives more color on their decision:

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy. Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We're looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

Blizzard is getting ready (we hope anyway) to unleash the StarCraft II multiplayer beta test "soon" but in the meantime they recently invited a number of media folks to check out a new build of the long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel at their offices in Irvine, CA. Our sister site Joystiq made the trek and brought back some hands-on impressions.

They also got a tour of Blizzard's campus and received a new seven minute multiplayer vdeo showing off more StarCraft II gameplay. You can download the HD version of the video right here at Big Download. Newly released screenshots from the game have also been added to our gallery. Finally Joystiq has a extensive chat with StarCraft II producer Chris Sigaty.

Alas, it seems that plans to check out the game's single player campaign were cut at the last minute but there will likely be more press events to show off StarCraft II before it's planned released before the end of the year (fingers crossed).

While the game has been in retail stores in Europe for a little while now the US version of ArmA II is now available for purchase and download via Steam. The military shooter sequel from developer Bohemia Interactive will also be shipping to stores in the US on July 7.

Just in case you are interested here are the PC hardware specs for the game:

Minumum:
• OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Processor: Dual Core CPU (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster)
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: GPU (Nvidia Geforce 7800 / ATI Radeon 1800 or faster) with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM
• Hard Drive: 10 GB free HDD space

Recommended:
• OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista
• Processor: Quad Core CPU or fast Dual Core CPU (Intel Core 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or faster)
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Fast GPU (Nvidia Geforce 8800GT or ATI Radeon 4850 or faster) with Shader Model 3 and 512 or more MB VRAM
• Hard Drive: 10 GB free HDD space

The fallout (pun intended) from Wednesday's news of id Software being acquired by ZeniMax Media is still being felt and today our sister site Joystiq and other media outlets got to speak with id co-founder John Carmack and the other principles involved. Here's a quickie summary of the important bits:

• Joystiq asked about the possibility of the id Tech 5 graphics engine being used in other games that are being developed by ZeniMax Media. It's CEO Robert Altman said, "We'll certainly take advantage of the expertise and brain of John Carmack throughout the organization. Specifically, what we will do with the technology, the id tech engine, and the proprietary technology that's been developed here, is to be discussed. We haven't determined how we are going to handle that proprietary technology, going forward. So, it's just one of the agenda items for us as we integrate these organizations."